She Designed This Tiny Home for the Rest of Her Life

In 2018, I lost my favorite person, Char. Lived with her for 35 years in Huntington Harbor, what I call the sparkler house. At that time, three-bedroom house, 2,100 square feet, two-story, much too big of a house for one person. I lived in a 25-foot trailer for close to five years, really fine-tuning and figuring out what I really needed out of a small space. Bedroom, office space, bathroom, a little bit of the kitchen, and I was set to go. So that's what brought me here. The dimensions of the house are eight and a half foot wide by 30 foot long. The bump-outs here are three foot deep, only three foot deep, 16 foot wide. I think when you're in it, it really doesn't feel like a building on wheels because of the bump-out. It's just one nice, big, open room. And that really opens up this space along with the ceiling height. Even though I have it open, it's primarily to show off the artwork and get the lighting in so it doesn't hurt the artwork. Having a lot of windows wasn't really my idea of a standard house. I just wanted the upper windows for lighting. You'll notice all four corners have windows that open, and that really allowed the air flow in. We were hitting temperatures of 82 degrees a couple weeks back. Without the mini split on, we walked in and it was a good 10, 15 degrees cooler than what was happening outside, just because the way the light was hitting and the airflow. So it was really important for me to have all one level throughout the house. There were some issues with the bump-out. Initially, we weren't trying to get it mechanized that it would have to be a step up. I didn't wanna be tripping over things at my age knowing I was gonna grow old in this house. So everything's comfortably one level, nice and even, very safe for me. I have what I consider more of a European-style kitchen. Everything's nice and tight, just what I need. I opted not to have an oven put in, and I kept with the basic gas range and an air fryer above it, and it just worked out nicely that it's one nice little package. The main reason not to have a stove is, one, it was honestly difficult to find a stove that would fit within my kitchen layout, and I realized I don't really cook in an oven. I cook rice cooker, air fryer, and the occasional omelet on the range. So I just needed something small, like most Europeans, nothing big, fancy kitchen. So if you're looking to design your tiny kitchen, think about what you really use every day. Do you really use four burners? Do you use an oven? Or are you more small apartment-type living where you just need the basics and that gets you through? I opted for a nice deep sink, even though I don't cook a lot. I have lots of storage options all the way from this side of the kitchen, the upper cabinets, yeah, they're a little tall, but I have a stair step for that, and then full storage down below. I decided on a normal size fridge for me, which is really small. I get plenty in there. I like the storage on top. I like the open storage shelves that helps display a lot of the ceramics that I have and some artwork. The artwork was big for me to make sure I had lots of wall space to get that up and display the things that I really treasure around me. So overall, my kitchen's very comfortable. It's not a one-butt kitchen. I can have lots of company in here, and it's a very welcoming space, very cozy space. Back in the house with Char, I call that the sparkler house. There were a few key pieces of furniture that I absolutely had to have in my tiny home. This is a pretty prominent piece, and for most, it's probably too big. However, I love the space it gives me, both workspace, dining, and entertaining. It's got these wonderful little drawers, both for office or dining room stuff, but it's just a great place to work in with the view of the rest of the house. This is a self-portrait of Char. We had tall ceilings in the sparkler house, and that was in the living room with probably a good 10 feet above it, and that was also important to me to make sure my ceilings were high enough, because I had always envisioned this close to the kitchen, just because it's a great presence in the house. So the lamp, Char found that in some antique place. It's an old Pasadena street lamp, and we always had it for our dining room, so of course I was gonna carry that through. Most of the artwork in here is Char's, and that's what I wanted surrounded about, around me, having lived with her for 35 years. So once the artwork did start going up in the house, I finally felt like I'm home again. So as I said, Char's my favorite person my entire lifetime. I kinda call this Char's corner, again, featuring a lot of her artwork. I love that about me, and I was able to do that because of these bump-outs. The bump-outs are important that I just have windows in the corner so I can get as much artwork up on the walls, and I have plenty of lighting above, which changes beautifully throughout the day, from morning to sunset. And an open floor space like this, and for me, I had to come up with a nice solution for closet space. So those two are hanging closets, and then I have drawer space up here. I have more closet space on the other side. But this makes it really convenient, because it doesn't look like a closet, and it doesn't weigh everything down with big furniture. So I'm truly enjoying this. When I have a party, it's a nice open buffet table. I kinda consider this my east viewing gallery chair when I lounge and I can enjoy the artwork. This is pretty much my office storage space. So you can see, I do have a chest of drawers here, and it fits in nicely because one of the bump-out to the height of the ceiling, and the artwork kinda came nicely around it. It is mostly stuffed with T-shirts that we used to make in ceramics every semester. So that's my treasure chest, so to speak. This little piece is dedicated to the goal of finishing this house, and it's something that I learned in taking an NLP course in 2024. Really helped me through the process of building, patience, the communication with the builder, which is key, because if you're not talking to your builder almost every day, you're not gonna get what you want. I started researching tiny homes. I actually found a company of all things up in Canada that had a floor plan very close to what I wanted, except that they ran a support wall right down the middle of the trailer, and I wanted an open space. And then we were still getting through COVID at that time, and they would not do any customizations. So I thought, okay, let's just reset. And I happened to find Zen Tiny Homes down in Vista, and I proposed my floor plan to them, wide open space, and Ben was open to doing it so that I could get my build the way I wanted it. And that's how we started that path. The budget was 250,000. I think I'm at about 240 with, not only the contract with Zen Tiny Homes, but all the stuff that I've done since the delivery of the house. We had to go through some corrections of things that we ran into, which that just happens in a build when you realize, well, that's not gonna work. There were things like in the bathroom, he was concerned that the sink was gonna be too high, and he thought, well, we can drop the floor down or we can have it step up. And my vision was, I do not want different level floors. I want everything safe, one level. I knew I was gonna get older in here and I didn't want those tripping hazards. Everything kind of worked out nicely where I have clean pathways, and if things change in the future and I struggle walking, it's still not gonna be a problem for me to get in and out of the bathroom. So those were just really key things. I constantly had to drive home to the builder. You know, a lot of tiny home builders, I think, are used to working with their little plans of what they like to sell to people, and you just, you choose your floor plan, you choose your finishes, boom, you have a tiny house. From the get-go, my house was not gonna be that. So through the whole process, making those corrections to get exactly what I wanted and pretty much what I got. I found Parque Santiago, they had a website, and I was in the area and I went ahead and checked it out, parked outside, walked in. I thought, oh, well, this is not bad. Everybody's got a green space. Everybody's got a nice parking space. It was very clean. So I thought, hmm, little secret here. And it's just been a wonderful community. It's a hidden gem. We're in Old Town Tustin, and a block over is a really wonderful selection of restaurants, and it makes it nice because happy hour, no problem, just a nice little walk over. $2,200 for a space rental sounds high, and it actually is well worth the investment, quite honestly. If I were to go to look at an apartment or loft space, I'd probably be paying $25,000 to $3,000 easy, and you'd be paying for something they designed, and good luck if you could fit in it correctly, especially with all of my artwork. So if I can have a home that I own, and all I'm worrying about is the rent and the utilities, it's still a win-win. Even if I just stayed at the sparkler house, I'm still saving quite a bit living here. I'm roughly calculating probably 1,000 a month is what I'm saving. The taxes were getting pretty high on the sparkler house, that being in Huntington Harbor. Beautiful house to live in, but not very efficient for me. I've packed a lot in here, and I still wanted kind of a spacious spa-type environment. This bathroom's eight foot wide, five foot deep, so I could get everything in and still move around here. I think the ceiling height is about seven foot, so even my tall guests won't feel like they're in a hobbit house. So starting with the walk-in tub, getting older, I didn't wanna basically try and climb in and out of a tub and risk falling, so I've got one of these walk-in tubs, and I got the lowest one available, and it's brilliant. It's got a jacuzzi, I can sit, I can soak. Got my view of the artwork as usual. Managed to be able to squeeze in a combo washer-dryer so that I can do laundry throughout the day if I so chose. I chose not to put a mirror in here. That's just not part of my lifestyle. There's one in there for guests visiting, and I've got other mirrors tucked into the storage closets. I just wanted a clean look. Again, a mini gallery within a big gallery. This is my bedroom space, the Yorkie and I. We hang out here quite a bit, obviously, at night, so it makes it very comfortable because I have the TV set up, whether I'm watching TV from working or at night in bed, and it's just, laying here at night is absolutely wonderful. I got a nice little surprise looking up at that third window the other night, and I hadn't realized it, but I have a postcard view of the moon in its different phases, so that makes it really nice. In the morning, these windows just let enough light where I can say, okay, she's coming alive, so it's absolutely wonderful with, it ended up really nice that the bed's on this side and with the way that the sun comes in. I kind of factored it in, but I didn't know how well it was gonna work out. Having lived in this space for the park, I started watching the way the sun was coming in, setting, the way the wind was coming through, so the environment ended up playing out really nicely with what I ended up with between the bump-outs, the windows, the airflow from the door, and then I have two awning-style windows, one in the loft and then one in the bathroom, so when I really want a nice breeze, it just flows all the way through. The bed is a full-size. I had a queen, and as we were getting closer and closer to delivery, I was a little worried because I knew my dimensions would be close. I probably could have gotten a queen in here. A full-size bed is fine for me. One of the things I noticed living in the trailer, it didn't have a separate bedroom. That one was only 25 foot, but it did have high bar tops so that if somebody was looking in the window, you still had privacy. I got some of that, not by accident, but because of the way I designed the kitchen, I feel like I have privacy. If somebody's gonna look in my window out there, yeah, I could put shades up, but I really like all the natural light coming in and if I'm laying down here, they're not gonna be able to see anything anyways. So overall, when I created this space, it was very visual to me and that's the way I wanted to keep it, and that's why I like the open space living because I constantly have visual access to it. This back space, again, storage built into a stepping system with a fold-out table stair gets me into my storage space, loft space, maybe a library space down the road once I get everything purged out. It allows me space to display more of Char's artwork, but very, very comfortable. It doesn't take up a lot of stair space that you would typically have, let alone in an apartment and a little trailer. I wanted something a little bit more permanent and safe for getting up the stairs, so that's why I had that little stair table built. And then I can use this table for artwork. So I was very lucky to pick this particular space. I have a lot of room in the back with a gazebo for my ceramic studio. I throw a couple of parties a year, one being winter solstice, so we get about 50 people in the space easily. With the inside of the house, I guess that number's gonna go up because it's nice and roomy. Again, when I chose this space, it just happened to be available, and I wanted it because I wasn't gonna be looking at other trailers. And having our own parking space with a lot of the green around it, the green lawns, just made it a beautiful space to be outside, especially when I started here with the 25-foot trailer. It more than doubled my living space, obviously. So one of the things about Parque Santiago, it is a hidden gem. When we lived at the sparkler house, it was a little harder to get to know the neighbors there. Easily, everybody's out to help, whether you're moving a trailer in or out or watching out for each other. It's a very safe community to live in. There's a few spaces left here, but this is our hidden gem. We don't want the whole world to know about this space. But overall, I would say, if you can find a community like this and make it your forever home, definitely make that choice. It's easy, efficient living. You're in a safe community. And it's just a cool way to live. So eight years later, since losing Char, I have her around me in big, full living color. The artwork, her presence, the life we shared, it's just all right here for me. And once I saw the artwork going up, it was like, okay, I'm finally home again. I want to do a big shout out to people who really helped me bring the finishing touches to my tiny home. I want to especially thank Robert and Mariana. Robert's done a lot of the molding work, cleanup, just all sorts of stuff. My neighbor, Jeff, who just hauled out today, electrician, helped me do special lighting for my specialty lamps. My former neighbor helped with moving, and Karen and Ken. I want to thank them for getting my yard back together because it was totally abused after the build. I want to thank Zen Tiny Homes for taking on my house. I know it was a huge job for them, probably one of their bigger challenges because I had a very specific vision. I also want to put a shout out to Stacey O'Byrne from Pivot Point. Back in 2024, I took an NLP course, and it helped me with communication, but it really helped me process shards passing and keep on track with the builder so I wasn't so stressed. I couldn't have done it without going through that course. It's more of a success mastery course, but for myself, there was a lot of healing and looking at the very end result that if I look back into the past, this is what I'm going to get. So I stuck with it. And I know a lot of my neighbors were constantly like, you're still building that thing? I go, yeah, but I have a very specific house. It's very custom. And I think once most of the folks, especially in this neighborhood, they were very protective. They're going, do you want me to have a talk with those guys? I go, no, it's okay. It's a process and I'm going to get what I want. So, and then they saw that and they go, yeah. Thanks. Bye.